Wallace: Young players get exploited

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The NBA has fined Rasheed Wallace for the
length of his shorts, for his many technical fouls, for his refusal
to speak with reporters and for a postgame run-in with officials.

So perhaps not surprisingly, the Portland Trail Blazers forward
doesn't hold the league in high regard. In an interview published
in Thursday's edition of The Oregonian, Wallace said the league's
establishment is exploiting young athletes to enrich itself.

"I'm not like a whole
bunch of these young boys out here who get caught up and captivated
into the league," Wallace, 29, said. "No. I see behind the lines.
I see behind the false screens. I know what this business is all
about. I know the commissioner of this league makes more than
three-quarters of the players in this league."

Wallace added that teams are drafting high school players
because they want athletes who are "dumb and dumber."

"That's why they're drafting all these high school cats,
because they come into the league and they don't know no better.
They don't know no better, and they don't know the real business,
and they don't see behind the charade."

Wallace is aware of his status among the fans, some who have
said they will not renew their season tickets unless Wallace is
traded. They see him as the prime example of everything that has
gone wrong with the team in recent years.

Wallace also said he's not concerned with NBA officials, who
whistled him for a record 41 technical fouls in 2000-01.

"That's just the fire in me. Some of the technicals I deserved.
Cussing at the officials or throwing something," he said. "But
some of them I didn't deserve.

"I'm not scared of the NBA. I'm not scared of the NBA
officials. If I feel as though myself or my teammates have been
dealt a wrong hand, I'm going to let it be known. I'm not going to
sit up here like most of these cats and bite my tongue. That's not
me."

Wallace is in his eighth season with Portland and is making $17
million this season. He is the only Blazers player who lives in the
area throughout the year, not just during the NBA season. Wallace
said he and his wife of five years, Fatima, like the city and would
prefer to stay.

"It's real nice and pretty in the summer," Wallace said. "All
the trees, flowers and everything else is more colorful. It's nice
out here in the summertime, and it's a good family atmosphere."

Wallace said his wife helped him realize that some of his
actions can have a negative effect on their family, such as when he
was arrested and charged with marijuana possession in November 2002
while riding in a sport utility vehicle with guard Damon
Stoudamire.

Wallace says he didn't regret the incident initially. Then he heard from his wife.

"It was embarrassing from the standpoint of my family. That's
one of the things my wife made me realize. She was like, 'I know
how you are. I know stuff like that doesn't really affect you too
much. But it affected us,'" Wallace said. "She meant her and my
kids. That made me sit back and think about it, and she was right.
A situation like that, I have to think past myself. I got a family.
Got a wife. She was telling me what was happening with my kids.
After I talked to her about it, I regretted the whole situation."

But Wallace, who's one of the more charitable Blazers, doesn't
consider himself a role model and doesn't feel he needs to
constantly represent the Blazers and the NBA in public and in front
of the media.

"It doesn't have to take a Portland Trail Blazer or a
professional basketball player to do good things in the community.
You can work at a bank or work at a 7-Eleven. You donate your time
or money to the local Boys & Girls Clubs or PAL (Police Activities
League) Club. They won't see you as a role model, but you are. I
don't know why they see a basketball player as a role model."

Still, he knows participating in charitable events for the
Blazers is part of his job as an NBA player. But once again, he
prefers doing it his way. That doesn't always include posing for
pictures.

"They try to glorify stuff with the media being there when they
do things in the community, but that's not me. I don't need a TV
camera to let me know on the inside that I'm doing something
good."